SE Pulls Away for 79-54 win at UAM

Southeastern shot 49.1 percent from the field, 57.1 percent from long range and never trailed as they pulled away down the stretch for a 79-54 road-win over Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday night in Monticello, Ark.

The win lifted the Savage Storm to 8-12 on the season and 6-8 in Great American Conference play heading into Saturday's matchup with Southern Arkansas at 2 p.m. in Magnolia, Ark.

All 14 suited players saw action in the contest and four reached double-digits, including a trio with 15 points each.

Haley Schaefer turned in a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Bailey Welch and Ronay English each posted 15 points as well.

Welch dished out a game-high eight assists in the contest across from no turnovers.

Welch and English each posted 3-of-5 performances from behind the arch, but were outdone by SE's fourth double-digit scorer as Shelby Hill posted 13 points on the strength of a 4-for-4 outing from three-point range.

I thought Haley and Bailey were really instrumental in building that lead in the first half,” said head coach Darin Grover. “I think we really executed our game plan on both ends of the floor.”

“I was also pleased we were able to get everybody in,” he continued. “We had some people come off the bench and play well like Shelby Hill and Cheree Kiser.”

The Storm fired at a 52.0 percent clip in the first half from the field as a whole and was over 50 percent from long range in both halves.

SE finished with 12 threes total, hitting five in the first half and seven more in the second.

Southeastern turned the ball over 17 times, while forcing just 11 UAM miscues, however the Blossoms were unable to take advantage of the difference as the Storm actually held a 22-21 edge in points off turnovers.

UAM out-rebounded SE on the offensive glass by a 15-to-9 margin, but again SE came out on top in taking advantage of those opportunities by a 6-5 margin.

Welch opened the game with a three point bucket and SE proceeded to open with the first eight points of the contest, capping the run with an old-fashioned three-point play by Schaefer.

UAM would cut the lead in half with back-to-back buckets, but the Storm would reel off another 8-0 run powered by the combination of Welch and Schaefer to push the lead out to 16-4 with 12:59 to play in the half.

The Cotton Blossoms would stop the run and twice cut the gap to 10 points before a third SE outburst keyed by Welch's third three of the half doubled the Storm advantage to 28-8 with 9:40 remaining in the first half.

UAM then mounted its own 8-0 run to claw back to within 12 before eventually whittling the Southeastern lead all the way down to 35-29 at the 3:07 mark.

At that point welch would hit a pair of free throws and Kiser would drain a jumper with 27 seconds to play and SE would take a 39-30 lead to the locker room.

The teams would trade buckets out of the break, but SE would eventually mount a 57-39 lead thanks to threes from English and Natalie Ruud.

That lead would grow to 21 on a pair of Schaefer free throws with 6:40 to play.

UAM would hit a three after those free throws to cut the gap to 18 points, but that was as close as the game would get as SE outscored the Blossoms 16-9 in the final five minutes to pull away with the 79-54 win.

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